Certification
Who should get certified?
Any individual whose education, experience, and career path is associated with the practice of agronomy, including:
- Field agronomists or salespeople working in public, private, or commercial sectors
- Consultants and farm managers
- Natural resource conservation personnel
- Educators and extension specialists
- Government and academic scientists and agronomy researchers
- Technical support personnel
To become a Mid-Atlantic Certified Crop Adviser, one must:
Meet The Education and Experience Criteria
An applicant for the MACCA program must have four years of crop production experience working with farmers, supported by references. Education may substitute for work experience. A four-year BS degree in Agronomy, or other agriculture-related degree, may count for up to two years of work experience and an associate degree in agriculture may count for one year of work experience. Credentials are reviewed quarterly by a Standards and Ethics Committee.
Pass Exams
1. International CCA
2. Regional Integrated Pest Management
3. Mid-Atlantic State’s Nutrient Management
Sign a Code of Ethics
CCAs must sign and adhere to a Code of Ethics, meaning they always focus on grower profitability while optimizing and protecting natural resources.
Remain Certified
To remain certified, a member must participate in 40 hours of Continuing Education Units (CEUs) over a two-year period with a minimum of 10 hours in any one year (with a minimum of 5 hours in each category and a maximum of 50% in any one category), and undergo an audit bi-annually by the MACCA Board to verify continuing education and adherence to the Code of Ethics.
To be valid for CCA CEUs, continuing education must fall into one of the four areas of:
1. Nutrient management
2. Soil and water management
3. Integrated pest management and
4. Crop management
CEU Standards defines the subject matter and “cutting edge” learning needs of agricultural professionals. These are the additional educational areas that CCAs will find useful in building on their competencies demonstrated when they passed the certification exams.
Another value for being a CCA
The ICCA Program successfully obtained a continuation of the Worker Protection Standard (WPS) exemption for CCAs. EPA released updated standards in 2015/16 with the implementation dates of 2017 and 2018. The CCA WPS exemption was due to be eliminated unless we requested a new review. That was done in 2016 with the official letter coming in February 2017. You can read the letter here.
Please feel free to share this news with your fellow CCAs. It is a national exemption and all EPA offices should have been notified. An article about this and the WPS standards will appear in the next issue of Crops and Soils Magazine.